Reviews 193

The Electronic Commonwealth: The Impact of New Media Technologies on Democratic Politics. Abramson, Jeffrey B.; Arterton, F. Christopher; and Orren, Gary R. New York: Basic Books, 1988. 331 pp. ISBN O-465-01878-5. LC 87-47783. $21.95.

In 1982 the Institute of Politics at Harvard University received a grant from the John and Mary R. Markle Foundation to undertake a three-year study of the new communications technologies, public policy, and democratic values. Abramson (Professor of Politics at Brandeis University), Arterton (Graduate School of Political Management at New York University),and Orren (John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University) were invited to design and conduct the research and to author the resultant work-this book.

Looking through a distinctly liberal political lens the authors see the new media presenting Americans with important choices. Their stated intent in writing this book is to bring a concern for democratic values to bear on these choices, which are even now being made in Congress, in administrative agencies, and in corporate offices throughout the country. The point should be well taken that virtually every element of American government has to some extent exploited recent advances in communication technology, whereas the political impact of this technology on the ordinary citizen is much less clear. The book’s points of focus are summed up in the titles of its eight chapters: I) The New Media and Democratic Values; 2) What’s New About the New Media?; 3) Elections and the Media: Past, Present, and Future; 4) Communications Technology and Governance; 5) The New Media and Democratic Participation; 6) Policy in a Comparative Perspective; 7) Freedom of the Press and the New Media; and 8) Toward an Electronic Commonwealth.

The authors see three dangers against which we need to guard: a) the corruption of the politics of the common good into a politics of mass conformity; b) the corruption of the politics of pluralism and diversity into a politics of faction and balkanization; and c) the corruption of the politics of individualism into a politics of isolation. In the case of the latter, the authors find it particularly worrisome that the mentality that predicts that electronic from-the-home banking and shopping will become the norm will also welcome the electronic plebiscite-instant electronic from-the-home voting and polling. Such a scenario is viewed as diminishing the debate and thoughtful consideration of issues by individual citizens. Individualism as we have known it will become less a philosophical appellation than it will a description of electronically enhanced physical isolation.

The creation of an informed citizenry is seen to be the great contribution of electronic media to democracy and should occur in the widespread distribution of public-affairs information to citizens. The authors discuss at length many of the provisions under which media operate in democratic societies (e.g., the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands). It is ironical and disturbing that this study finds the range of political programming on televison in the United States tending to be fairly homogeneous-aimed at the tastes and preferences of the widest possible mass audience. With the exception of Public Broadcasting channels. U.S. television networks air what will sell advertising. Indeed. the gap between civic and commercial access to the new media-that is between candidate use and citizen use-is viewed as a vexing problem that is yet to be solved.

Although this study does not directly deal with issues such as the role of government depository libraries in providing public access to government information via the new media, it does come down four-square on the side of the principle “that subsidies for civic communications are in the American tradition and not a violation of it.” The free library system is offered as an example of the importance attached to subsidizing civic education. A strong and articulate point is made of the fact that we have not yet begun thinking of computers and information services as the equivalent of printing presses and libraries, and that it is crucial that this imaginative leap be made and that substantial public financing for civic uses of computerized information should be provided.

The book’s warning that we must guard against an information environment where, instead of disseminating information, we are using computers to create databases to hoard information is one that needs to be heeded. As too should the authors’ assertion that the information a democracy needs is about public as well as private matters. However, the authors’ liberal perspective narrows the spectrum of dissemination options when they take issue with fee-based distribution of public information through mechanisms such as the National Technical Information Service or CompuServe or other private-sector enterprises. There is inadequate attention paid to matters of private-sector value added to public information; inevitably this leads to a too-simplistic discussion with the lines of contention drawn between information that is publicly held versus that which is privately held for profit. The authors are quite correct, however, that in the end, only politics, and not technology alone, can deliver this sort of democratized information. However, their stylized social consciousness seems to fail to explicitly accept that the commercial sector is comprised of citizenry-it is citizens who comprise management, ownership, workers, and stockholders as well as, of course, the consumer of information. Because of this oversight the book cannot address in any specific way just how all the torrent of information spewing forth can be delivered effectively. or, for that matter, cost-effectively, to the citizens who desire or need it.

All in all. The Electrorric Cu~7nrc~ntl~enlth proves to be an excellent and well docul~ented. albeit political. discussion of the Dig infom7cr~ion policy picture. Every government information professional, every person with an interest (vested or otherwise) in government information policy. should read this book, if for no other purpose than to provide a greater technological, political. and social context for the policy debates in which they themselves are or soon will be engaged.

BRUCE MORTON Assistant Dean for Public Services Montana State University Libraries

Bozeman, MT 597 17-0022 USA

Vital Records Handbook. Kemp, Thomas J. Baltimore. MD: Genealogical Publishing, 1988. 231~~. ISBN O-8063-1220-3. LC 88-80164. $19.95.

There are several handbooks available that cover the subject of vital records. A number of articles on the subject have also appeared in genealogical and historical periodicals. The Department of Health and Human Services even has a series of pamphlets on where to write for birth. marriage. and death records. Many of these articles, books. and pamphlets are out of date. None with which this reviewer is familiar provides a complete collection of forms from each state, together with information about the years covered by each office. They also do not list current telephone numbers or give information about how costs for certificates can be charged to credit cards. In the Vital Records Handbook we not only find each state covered. but also the trust territories of the United States. The registrars’ offices for the United Kingdom and Ireland ate also included. as are those for the provinces of Canada. In these and other ways Mr. Kemp’s book fills a gap that has existed in the literature for years.

This book of forms and addresses will be welcomed by genealogists. local historians, and anyone else trying to prove a birth, marriage, or death. Most libraries in this country will need a copy. This reviewer hopes that local and state government officials will also purchase copies. Any taxpayer trying to get a passport or social security benefits will appreciate being able to find the addresses and forms needed to order certificates from other states or countries. For each state, province, or country, there is a brief explanation about how to write for certificates and the cost for this service.

T/ze Vital Records Handbook is not really a handbook. There is no information about how and when these types of records were created or how they are used in genealogical or historical research. It was disappojnting to discover that this book does not deal with all of the birth, marriage, and death records in each state. province. or country. It only treats those records available on a state-wide or national basis. Except for a few references about marriage records kept on a local level, the author does not tell the reader that he or she can write to local officials for records not held on a state level or for records from earlier years. There is no information about when record-keeping on the county or local level began. New England town records, for example. may contain births. deaths, or marriages from as early as the mid-seventeenth century. In many states, county records of this type date from the mid-nineteenth century. Information about vital records in large cities would also have been helpful to the reader. Often vital records for such areas are not kept at the state office of vital statistics. One must write to a city or county office for records of persons who lived there. New York is the only city covered by Mr. Kemp.

There is limited information about indexes to vital records or the gaps that exist in their coverage. The dates provided for the beginning of state-wide registration can also be misleading. Although a state began registration in 1900, it may have been 1910 or 1915 before 75 to SO percent of the births, nlarriages. or deaths were registered. There are also cases where large portions of vital records’ collections have been destroyed by fire of have become lost for some other reason. There is little information on major gaps like these. The reader gets the impression that only state health departments. vital statistics’ offices or county clerks provide this type of information. In many areas. state archives and historical societies will furnish copies of vital records from microfilmed or original copies in their collections.

The author could have answered most of the questions that come to mind as we read Vital Record.7 Handbook by providing us with a few pages of introduction. Page ix, the introduction, provides no instruction about vital records. What the reader really needs is a short history about the keeping of vital records in the countries covered. A brief reading list containing titles that tell us more about this type of record would have been helpful.